Ford B-Max Removing the Battery

In the old days removing a battery was a 5 minute job: unscrew the two butterfly nuts on the clamp, disconnect the terminals and job done! Not so on the B-Max and if you are seeking help from the car's handbook then I hope you enjoy the never-ending loop between pages 150 and 156 which itself is a serious indictment of all that is wrong with the modern manufacturer's handbook! Having said that,  the job is only daunting the first time you try it and that's because the battery is partly hidden and appears to have numerous extra wires attached to it. As the handbook does tell you (in case you didn't know what a battery looks like) it is indeed located under the bonnet at the back on the right. The positive terminal is forward, the negative obscured. Some dismantling will be required. 

Lift up the positive terminal cover

Underneath is a odd looking connection but this consists of 2 eye-brackets attached to the terminal by the big nut on the left. The terminal itself is attached to the battery post by the smaller nut on the right.

The negative terminal is hidden under the scuttle but it is connected to the car body via a flexible cable terminating in an eye connector bolted to a weld nut near the rear on the right. This should be unscrewed and disconnected before working on the positive terminal. However its hard to reach so I just removed the positive terminal first BEING CAREFUL not to short it out by contacting anything metal with the spanner. Using a socket and extension does mean this can be done fairly easily with the tool well clear of the body.

Loosen the terminal attachment nut (but if you haven't yet disconnected the negative terminal be very careful that the spanners don't touch anything metal!). The manufacturers have not provided enough slack in the cable so you can't lift the terminal straight off the battery post. This makes a simple job more challenging. IMHO this is an unnecessary complication, but you have to remove the larger nut on the left to release the two angle bracket eye-connectors that attach to a short threaded post built into the positive terminal before removing the terminal itself from the battery post. Owing to a lack of cable you need to coordinate removing the eyelet connectors from their post on the terminal, and the battery terminal itself from the battery post, by wiggling and raising them all together until they slip off the battery - its unnecessarily fiddly and another inch of cabling would have made all the difference!

Battery terminal removed- the eyelet connectors are also free

The battery terminal is now free.

Positive terminal released from battery post. Note battery post clamp screw on right and the threaded connection post for the eyelet brackets on the left.

If you haven't yet released the earth terminal from its connection to the body do so now.

Battery negative connection to body top left

There are a couple of sheathed wires attaching to the battery- one is held via a pop on clip to one of the battery clamping posts. Pop this off.

Polastic sheathed wire bundle pop fit to battery bracket stud

The battery is clamped in place by a large bracket- itself held by 3 smaller nuts. This is overkill really as the battery is pretty firmly held anyway,  but unscrew and remove the three nuts: 2 on the right and one on the left of the bracket.

Unscrewing the rear of the rhs battery bracket nuts.

However- even with all 3 nuts removed its still not possible to remove the bracket which will remain trapped behind the battery.

 In order to make further progress you now need to remove the cover on the air filter.

The air filter cover is held by 4 torx screws, the rear left one is hard to get at and you may need to loosen or detach the air intake hose at the large screw clip on the left in this pic..

Air filter cover-torx screws removed but you may need to loosen the air hose connection at the large circlip in order to gain access to the rear left screw.

Remove the cover and move it and the intake hose aside to the left. This exposes the air filter- you don't want any dirt falling onto that, but don't remove it either or this dirt would simply drop into the intake itself. Best therefore to cover the filter with a cloth or foil before attempting to move the battery.

Air filter cover removed- keep the air filter protected- cover it with a cloth as you will generate grit or debris when you lift out the battery.

You can then lift the front end of the battery and pull it out from under the scuttle. You'll need to get to about 45 degrees. Remove the battery clamp as the battery comes out. The battery is heavy so this required both hands- consequently I couldn't take a picture as I did it. Note, the battery will still have the negative terminal and connector lead attached to its negative post. You can remove this if fitting a new battery as the battery comes out.

Finally lift the battery out of its tray and clear of the car.

Refitting is as they say, the reverse of removal, but make sure you fit the negative terminal to the negative battery post before angling and sliding the battery together with its clamp back into the tray. Leave the plastic cover on the positive post as you do so to avoid accidental earthing. I would add the following points learned from experience.

1. Battery removal when the car is locked will trick the car into thinking its being stolen and the alarm will sound. Therefore remove the battery only when the car is unlocked. Remove and keep the key with you in case central locking is tripped and your key becomes locked inside the car! Naturally enough, central locking will not work with the battery removed, and although the doors can (apparently) be locked manually, I couldn't find a way to do it! This means the car has to be left unlocked until a replacement battery is available. Should also add that you can't temporarily reconnect the battery to lock the car either- because the alarm will sound. All this is a magnificent own-goal that leaves the car insecure if no battery replacement is immediately available. TBF there is a very unclear description of manual door locking in the car's handbook on page 38. I couldn't match either of the illustrations to physical features on the car and I think the figures were probably not modified from the Fiesta manual and relate to cars without sliding rear doors. There must be a way of telling the car that the battery is going to be removed and so not to sound the alarm - on my Vauxhall you have a short window after turning off the ignition but I can't find similar on the B max. All this stuff should be in the owners manual- but hey- it isn't!

2. Removing the battery will wipe all information from the ECU, this may include station presets on the radio and bluetooth phone sync. It re-learns much of the important motor information when the car runs but you will probably need to reprogram the radio at least (note there is no "secure code" for these built in radios). I leave the ign on for 5 mins without running the motor to give it a chance to find itself and then start the car. The battery charging light will in all probability remain on!! This isn't mentioned anywhere in Haynes or the Ford manuals and at first caused me a huge amount of concern. It sent me checking for broken wires and blown fuses! This was all completely unnecessary as it seems to be normal and the light will go out after 2-3 miles as the system learns what charging voltage to expect.  Why this isn't mentioned anywhere is beyond me.

If I did this process again I think I'd use an OBD II memory saver which should maintain all this info in the car's memory. I don't know if this would solve the alarm or door locking issues though.

In fact the manual never ceases to amaze me- so many pages, illustrations and words yet so little information. But then in the old days the owners' manual would tell you how to set tappets and adjust ignition timing- this one is pretty much of the "don't drink the battery acid" type.